Preparation

Rishi is actually based in Milwaukee, so a number of our local coffee shops serve their tea! This one was at The Coffee House in Burlington, but I’ve also run across some of their blends at Kickapoo, Adonyne, and Stone Creek in Milwaukee. I have a number of friends who are coffee snobs, so it’s always exciting to find a place that serves both good coffee and good tea so we can both enjoy ourselves! :)

This tea wasn’t terrible, but you can find much better tea at Rishi. There is a strong peppermint flavor coming from this one, though that may be because I used a decent amount of leaf. However, his makes a really nice iced tea!

Preparation

Hello Steepster, haven’t been posting in a while! I’ve still been drinking tea, but nothing noteworthy until now. I’m trying yet another new tea from Rishi, a company that is quickly garnering more and more of my appreciation with their quality teas. This time it is dun, dun, duuuuun a pu-erh blend. I was, for obvious reasons, wary of trying this one, but because Rishi has convinced me that their teas are usually really good, I decided to give it a go.

The first time I opened the bag, I got a hefty waft of ginger (and a subtle earthy smell of the pu-erh). It felt like a kick in the nostrils, so I was expecting the ginger to be quite strong in this blend. And it is, as we will get to in a bit. The instructions said to brew this with boiling water for 4 minutes, adding a minute per each additional steep. I was doubtful, because 4 minutes for a pu-erh seems to be quite a long time. And I think I was right, because after just 1.5-2 minutes the tea was already dark and has a strong aroma. These two signs I usually take to mean that the tea is strong enough for me to drink, and I decided to pull the plug on the steeper.

The tea was just right in strength: not over-brewed but strong enough for me to be satisfied with enough flavour. The ginger is quite strong in the blend – in fact it is the dominant flavour note – but the pu-erh also comes through, though rather sneakily, almost as if it knows I am waiting for it like an intruder in the night and it doesn’t want to get caught. It’s not bad though. To be honest, it is a bit hard to separate from the powerful ginger flavour and aroma, but I do get the slight earthiness (?) in the background. I think this was a good way to ease into becoming acquainted with the taste of pu-erh, but because this tea is predominantly ginger-flavoured (which is not bad, I like ginger), I will have to try some of LP’s sample pu-erh packets to really delve into the pu-erh world.

I’ll have to revisit this one. I do remember it being very orange-y. I don’t remember the haunted house. Maybe they crammed a dead orange in the flavor essence and now it haunts the tea. Like, “Ooooorange yoooouu pithed oooffff that yoooou triiieedd thiiss? Looook ooouuut. I’m riiiight be-riiind yooou.”

I went out to coffee with a friend yesterday and was delighted to discover that one of her favorite coffee shops (Kickapoo in Milwaukee’s Third Ward) also serves a nice selection of organic loose-leaf tea! I haven’t tried much from Rishi yet, but I’ve been impressed with what I’ve sampled so far. This was no exception! Large, unbroken leaves unfurled during the first steep, yielding a rich mahogany-colored tea with an intense wine-like aroma. The flavor was just the right balance of earthy and fruity with a lovely smooth texture and just a hint of astringency that kept me coming back for one more sip. The second steeping was just as flavorful as the first and I’m guessing the leaves would have held up for many more if I hadn’t gotten too deep in conversation to go up to the counter for more hot water!

Preparation

The first steep was really lovely with all parts accounted for in perfect balance : coconut, pineapple, bao zhong oolong. The second steep was ok, and the party was totally over on the third. DT’s Coconut Oolong has spoiled me with its eight or more steeps of coconut flavour. Still, the first one was really really good.

@Mookit: I didn’t even realize re-steeping was a THING until this site. When I was a kid, my nana (grandmother) used to re-steep her Celestial Seasonings or whatever teabags. My mother would make fun of her behind her back for being so stingy. Reading people’s reviews now shows that sometimes re-steeps bring out different flavors, which is kind of exciting. So maybe my grandmother WASN’T stingy. (Just kidding. She totally always has been).

I was worried this was going to be another mouth full of clove which seems to overwhelm a lot of chai, but it isn’t. The pepper, cinnamon, ginger and cardamom are strong and hold up under almond milk and sugar.

Preparation

Earlier this year I attended the Fancy Food show in San Francisco. Turmeric seems to be the ingredient/component of the year. It is everywhere. The awareness of the touted healthful properties are definitely being advantaged in many aspects of the food industry.

As a result of the visit we created a Turmeric Lime dressing for one of our Teahouse salad offerings. I also purchased some of Rishi’s Turmeric Ginger and a new released Turmeric Chai which I’ll review in a future note.

I have always been a fan of Rishi. They use high quality components all organic. You can trust that you are getting a worthy product.

The Turmeric Ginger is definitely an invigorating brew. The ginger is nice and strong and you can feel the burn in the back of your mouth and even down your throat. Truly a ‘blend’, the flavors are otherwise well rounded with nothing else standing to the forefront. Turmeric has a dusty flavor and thankfully, licorice, which I don’t favor, does not even make itself much known.

Got this as a sample at the Midwest Tea Fest in the swag bag you get for attending. I usually give away the tea samples I get in these because they are almost always tea bags and nothing loose, and tend to be lower quality (broken leaf) teas.

I held on to a couple that I figured I might enjoy. Rishi has some pretty good loose leaf teas so I thought maybe this would be a good tea. And I should say that the leaves inside of the little pyramid shaped bag here are a mixture of whole and broken leaves. They are rather brown looking though, very dark, and don’t really evoke the idea of green tea much. The brew is the usual pale yellow green tea color at least.

The Jasmine aroma and flavor are nice, about what you’d expect. The taste of the tea leaves is not exceptional. I don’t taste really any vegetal or grassy green tea flavor at all, just a sort of drying astringent quality and a little bit of tart flavor aside from the jasmine.

This tea is about on par with the jasmine tea you’ll probably get if you order a pot at an Asian restaurant. It’s fine, might calm a hungry appetite a bit and pair nicely with some food, but on its own, it’s not particularly good tea and not something you’d probably want to sit down and just reflect on.

For what it’s worth, I’ve had better bagged teas from other companies, which is a bummer, because I like Rishi as a company.

Preparation

Yeah, so I have been continuing my green, white, and oolong days as I continue my acupuncture and Chinese herbs treatments. Surprisingly, the transition from black teas has not been all that difficult. I am not giving them up forever, of course, just for the time being to not contradict what is happening in my treatments.

The tough thing for me has been giving up milk, as well as black tea. I find myself craving lovely sweetened chais and good strong tea lattes. I predict I will be breaking down and having one or two some time soon. I do miss them so. I only hope that, when and if, I do break down, the milky cup in front of me will be worth it.

Back from my tangent to this fine tea. Very very lovely.

My first steeping was full of lovely heavy red wine— reminds me of Mondavi vineyards— and chocolate notes. These flavours dissipated in subsequent steepings, but the cups continued to be lovely. Many many steepings later, I am still enjoying the tea.

I might have to make a Rishi order very soon. Just as soon as I can justify it.

Daylon, I am ashamed to say, that I am WAY behind on tasting and sending and the tea world in general. I am sorry. hangs head

I will get to them and I will enjoy them. I promise.

And yes, I think there were dark oolongs too. The selection of all of them was totally ohmygod fab and I thank you for that. I should go through it to see just what teas I can drink NOW on this current regime. I have just been foolishly assuming that everything is out of reach. Or maybe it’s been fatigue and this heat.

I am just reading up on this tea. Apparently, it is grown in Thailand. I had been unaware of that. I also did not know that Rishi is an American company. I had been under the impression that it was Canadian. Ooops.

I’m in a light Green Oolong state of mind. I typically have a staple of some throughout the year, but right now it’s the main type of tea I’ve been craving. I’m currently on a quest to find a Milk Oolong as sweet as Mandala’s for a more affordable price.

I had an orange blossom roll-on perfume from Bath & Body Works that I was obsessed with in middle school — so when I spotted this in my supermarket, I had to have it. Alas, it was bitter and grassy and made me very sad. I put it on the break room table at work, marked it “free!”, and someone else made off with it.

Thankfully, I found my written notes from this that I didn’t throw away, so here they are in point form:

- another Rishi sipdown
- smells very smooth and malty, slightly earthy like freshly wet soil
- not exactly “ruby” colour, more like amber, leaning towards orange
- very smooth, reminds me of a whiskey/bourbon type body, but less sharp and more rounded tones… still deep though
- pleasant and high quality, enjoyable to drink)

Drinking this for the second time: was at mom’s house the first and didn’t take notes. I do remember that I enjoyed it the first time too, though!

I’m still quite a new traveler of the oolong territory, but I think I like most of them. This tea is definitely one of the better oolong teas I’ve tried. The aroma is slightly malty and earthy, and reminds me a bit of dark chocolate and cherries (although maybe the tea description just influenced me to expect this!) I’m still not that great at picking out subtle notes in the aroma/flavour, but nevertheless the aroma is hearty and satisfying.

I find the flavour to be quite the same as the aroma: slightly malty, earthy, with subtle hints of other flavours that mix really well with each other. It is not overpowering or bitter, and overall enjoyable to drink!

Rather sad to be finishing this one off! I must say, it really grew on me, and I ended up looking forward to drink it every day at work. I love the balance of robust flavour that this tes has. Like dance partners intricately locked in a tight yet perfectly executed three-way tango. ( /creativity)

The most prominent two favours are the sweet and creamy coconut and the earthy oolong base. Then comes the pineapple as a very subtle yet perfect finishing touch that adds just the right amount of tang. It’s rare, in my opinion, that a tea is blended with such balance, where there is the right amount of each ingredient without any of them overpowering the others. I really enjoyed this one, and I hope to get my hands on it again I the future.

Haha, thanks! I got inspired by reading Wocket’s notes and had to give it a try. However, by the time I sat down with my tasting notes and my iPad, it was pretty late and my creative juices were running quite low.

This one brewed very very light in colour, I’m hoping the flavours will still be there. Aroma is of sweet coconut and is very delicate and nice. First sip reminds me of a slightly vegetal green tea, with hints of coconut. Need to let it cool more to taste better.

Getting more of the coconut as the tea cools, still strongly paired with the oolong base. Pineapple is lost between these two, as far as I can tell. Still, quite a tasty tea. Not overpowering with the sweetness or coconut, but has enough flavour to make it enjoyable.

I think I can taste the pineapple as the tea gets cooler and I can take bigger sips, but still is quite subtle between the two dominant flavours. It is a nice addition nonetheless and helps to fill out the flavour profile to completion. The tea is overall quite creamy and full-bodied, yet light and refreshing at the same time. Delightful.